14 ERA-CAPS Regulating Tomato quality through Expression (RegulaTomE)

RegulaTomE的两个目标是确定番茄品质性状的代谢途径的转录调节的重要性，并在分子水平上确定这些转录调节因子。所选择的品质性状包括决定抗氧化能力的性状，影响保质期和营养价值的性状，以及决定果实风味和过熟程度的性状，影响感官特性和保质期的性状。还将确定有助于非生物胁迫抗性的基因座，以实现更有营养、稳定和可持续作物的综合目标。RegulaTomE将利用野生物种与番茄杂交产生的渐渗系（ILs）中可用的自然变异来评估转录调控的重要性，鉴定额外的调控基因，并评估潜在的遗传和表观遗传变异。此外，还将评估直接或间接利用大量未开发的野生物种资源的自然变异进行作物改良的可能性。为了鉴定茄类番茄红素IL调控代谢途径的基因，并捕获尽可能多的遗传和表观遗传变异，以便于基因发现和番茄改良，需要开发资源，包括茄类番茄红素及其代谢物的基因组参考序列、IL果实的DNA甲基化和转录组谱。结果数据将不受限制地通过现有的公共数据库提供，为社区进一步开发未开发的番茄红素自然变异提供宝贵的资源。RegulaTomE将导致调控基因的鉴定（在基础认识方面的重要进展），并为水果品质代谢工程提供新的工具。更直接的是，番茄红素基因il所揭示的果实品质的自然变异，既可以通过直接渗入栽培品种，也可以通过鉴定目标位点和相应的等位基因变异，间接地应用于番茄改良，对番茄红素育种种质和其他近缘品种的品质性状做出积极贡献。来自五个主要欧洲组织和两所美国大学的科学家在肉质水果和农业/园艺创新方面进行了世界领先的研究，他们的合作将允许在国家层面上开发无法获得的规模的工具和资源。RegulaTomE的产出将以基因、靶位点和分子标记的形式提供一个理解框架和工具，以支持在其他园艺作物中开发更长的保质期、更有营养和更美味的肉质水果。这些资源的有效性以及从“规则种植”中获得的知识的重要性将确保该项目直接促进粮食安全和可持续水果种植。

The twin objectives of RegulaTomE are to determine the importance of transcriptional regulation of the metabolic pathways defining quality traits in tomato and to identify such transcriptional regulators at the molecular level. The selected quality traits include those determining antioxidant capacity which impacts shelf life and nutritional value as well as those determining fruit flavor and over-ripening which influence organoleptic properties and shelf-life. Loci contributing to abiotic stress tolerance will also be identified toward the combined goals of more nutritious, stable and sustainable crops. RegulaTomE will use the natural variation available in introgression lines (ILs) resulting from wild species crosses to tomato to assess the importance of transcriptional regulation, identify additional regulatory genes and assess underlying genetic and epigenetic variation. RegulaTomE will additionally assess the potential for direct or indirect use of natural variation from a largely untapped wild species resource for crop improvement. To identify genes regulating metabolic pathways using the Solanum lycopersicoides ILs, and to capture as much genetic and epigenetic variation as possible for application to gene discovery and tomato improvement, resources need to be developed, including a genome reference sequence for S. lycopersicoides and metabolite, DNA methylation and transcriptome profiles of IL fruit. Resulting data will be made available without restriction via existing public databases, providing invaluable resources for the community to exploit further the untapped natural variation in S.lycopersicoides. RegulaTomE will lead to regulatory gene identification (an important advance in terms of fundamental understanding), and provide new tools for metabolic engineering of fruit quality. More immediately, the natural variation in fruit quality revealed by the S.lycopersicoides ILs could be applied to tomato improvement either directly through introgression into cultivated varieties or indirectly through the identification of target loci and corresponding allelic variation making positive contributions to quality traits within S. lycopersicum breeding germplasm and in other close relatives of tomato. The cooperation of scientists from five major European organisations and two US Universities producing world-leading research on fleshy fruit and agricultural/horticultural innovation will allow the development of tools and resources on a scale unavailable at a national level. The outputs of RegulaTomE will provide a framework of understanding as well as tools, in the form of genes, target loci and molecular markers, to support development of longer shelf-life, more nutritious and more flavorsome fleshy fruits in other horticultural crops. The effectiveness of these resources and the significance of the knowledge acquired on RegulaTomE will ensure that the project contributes directly to food security and sustainable fruit cultivation.